As decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, October 4, 1582, was followed by
October 15, 1582. Thus ended the 1600-year reign of the Julian calendar
upon which the Gregorian calendar is based, and thus began the calendar
which DECwindows Calendar uses to measure time.

Calendars based on sun and moon movement were used even by the ancients,
but the first reasonably accurate one was the 365 1/4-day cycle
calculated by the Greek Sosigenes. This was the calendar authorized by
Julius Caesar in 46 BC. The Julian calendar (not to be confused with the
Julian period; see below) had 3 years of 365 days each, followed by a
fourth year of 366 days.

The 365 1/4-day cycle was more accurately defined in 730 AD by the
Venerable Bede, an Anglo-Saxon monk, who shortened the time by 11
minutes, 14 seconds. This accumulates to a whole day's error every 128
years, or a little more than 3 days every 400 years. This being the Dark
Ages, nothing was done to adjust the Calendar, despite Roger Bacon
sending a note to Pope Clement IV, informing him of the drifting of the
date for the vernal equinox. Later, Pope Sixtus IV did become convinced
that another reform was needed and called the German astronomer
Regiomontanus to Rome to advise him. Unfortunately, Regiomontanus died
of the plague shortly thereafter and the plans died with him.

Thursday, October 4, 1582 was the next time the calendar was adjusted.
This last day of the Julian calendar was followed by Friday, October 15.
So began the Gregorian calendar that we use today, named after Pope
Gregory XIII. He commissioned the mathematician Father Christopher
Clavius, S.J., to do the necessary calculations, having been authorized
to reform the calendar by the Council of Trent in 1545.

The Vatican librarian Aloysius Giglio provided a formula for long-range
accuracy. He suggested that every fourth year be a leap year, except for
century years that are not divisible by 400. Thus 1700, 1800, and 1900
would not be leap years, but 2000 would be, because 2000 is divisible by
400. This rule eliminated 3 leap years every 4 centuries, making the
calendar sufficiently correct for most ordinary purposes.

Political Acceptance in Europe

Italy, Portugal, and Luxembourg. By 1584, Belgium, parts of the
Netherlands, Switzerland, and most Catholic German states had joined,
and by 1587, so had Hungary. It was not until 1699-1700 that these
countries were joined by the rest of the Netherlands, Denmark, and the
Protestant German countries.

By the time the British imposed the calendar on all its possessions, in
1752, 11 days needed to be lost. September 2, 1752, was thus decreed to
be followed by September 14. In addition, New Year's day was moved back
from March 25 to January 1. (For example, before, March 24, 1700 had
been followed by March 25, 1701). Among other repercussions, this moved
Washington's birth date from February 11, 1731, to February 22, 1732.
The following year, 1753, Sweden too adopted the calendar.

In 1793, the French Revolutionary government adopted a calendar of 12
months of 30 days each, with 5 extra days in September (6 on leap
years). The Gregorian calendar was reinstated in 1806 by Napoleon.

Political Acceptance World Wide

Adoption of the calendar in countries outside Europe and its Crown
possessions occurred much later, and often in conjunction with political
upheaval: Japan in 1873, Egypt in 1875, China in 1912, and Turkey in
1917.

In 1918, Russia's revolutionary government decreed that January 31,
1918, would be followed by February 14, 1918.

Religious Acceptance Worldwide

German Protestants used the old calendar until 1776, three quarters of a
century after their countries had adopted the Gregorian system.

Sweden retained the old Easter rules for 90 years after switching to the
Gregorian calendar, and many Middle Eastern Christian sects still retain
the Julian calendar.

The Russian Orthodox Church still follows the Julian system.

The Julian Period

Astronomers use the Julian period because it is convenient to express
long time intervals in days rather than months, weeks and years. It was
devised by Joseph Scaliger, in 1582, who named it after his father
Julius, thus creating the confusion between the Julian (Caesar) calendar
and the Julian (Scaliger) period.

Julian Day 1 began at 12:00 noon, January 1, 4713 BC. This date was
thought by some to correspond approximately to the beginning of the
universe. Certainly it predated any known astronomical events known in
the 16th century without resorting to negative times. Scaliger decided
on the actual date on the grounds that it was the most recent
coincidence of three major chronological cycles:

- The 28-year solar cycle, after which dates in the Julian calendar (for
example September 27) return to the same days of the week (for example
Tuesday).

- The 19-year lunar cycle, after which phases of the moon return to the
same dates of the year.

- The 15-year indiction cycle, used in ancient Rome for tax regulation.

It takes 7980 years to complete the cycle. Noon of January 1, 1988,
marks the beginning of Julian Day 2447161.

The Julian period is also of interest because of its use as a time base
by the VMS operating system.

VMS and the Julian Period or:Why VMS regards November 17, 1858,as
the beginning of time...

The modified Julian date adopted by SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory) for satellite tracking is Julian Day 2400000, which turns
out to be November 17, 1858.

SAO started tracking satellites with an 8K (nonvirtual) 36-bit IBM 704
in 1957, when Sputnik went into orbit. The Julian day was 2435839 on
January 1, 1957. This is 11225377 octal, which was too big to fit into
an 18-bit field. With only 8K of memory, the 14 bits left over by
keeping the Julian date in its own 36-bit word would have been wasted.
They also needed the fraction of the current day (for which 18 bits gave
enough accuracy), so it was decided to keep the number of days in the
left 18 bits and the fraction of a day in the right 18 bits of one word.

Eighteen bits allows the truncated Julian day (the SAO day) to grow as
large as 262143, which from November 17, 1858, allowed for 7 centuries.
Possibly, the date could only grow as large as 131071 (using 17 bits),
but this still covers 3 centuries and leaves the possibility of
representing negative time. The 1858 date preceded the oldest star
catalogue in use at SAO, which also avoided having to use negative time
in any of the satellite tracking calculations.

Ultrix (Unix) Time Origins

The beginning of time for Ultrix systems is:

Thursday January 1 00:00:00 1970

The reason for this date being chosen is that this was the year that
UNIX, the "father" of Ultrix, was firstreleased.

Thus dates prior to 1970 are BU; 1970 and later dates are AU.

History and DECwindows Calendar

If you read the topics concerning the political and religious acceptance
of the Gregorian calendar, you will see that there is a problem: there
are many dates for the conversion from the Julian to the Gregorian
calendar. For example, the British (and therefore the Americans)
converted in September 1752, so British and American Calendar users
might expect Calendar to show September 2, 1752, to be followed by
September 14, 1752. However, a Russian user would expect to see this
jump between January 31, 1918, and February 14, 1918.

DECwindows Calendar conforms to the date of the original decree,
therefore no days have been lost since Friday, October 15, 1582, nor
since the beginning of DECwindows Calendar time: January 1, 1600. Thus
for everyone except for users from the majority of the Catholic European
countries, which all converted before this date, there will appear to be
an "error" in Calendar, where the conversion actually took place. This
generalization was felt to be acceptable for an application not
specifically designed for historians.

"Just wait 16 minutes," I pleaded with him. "You'll have the same
birthday as Superman!" But no. So instead of being six, my son Doug is
36 today. Other than that, things worked out pretty well. I mean, here
it is, over three and a half decades later, and I still haven't run out
of embarrassing photos. Happy birthday!

Rick Santorum said today that during his 16 years in Congress, he was an outsider the whole time.
You know what? After 16 years, you're not an outsider. You're just unpopular.–Jay Leno

Santorum says that Satan has his sights set on the United States of America.
And today Satan said he tries to avoid politics because it makes him feel dirty.-Jay Leno

This guy Santorum is very conservative. Rick Santorum is so conservative he won't watch
a baseball game because there's a pitcher and a catcher.–Jay Leno

Analysts say a key voting bloc this election year will be women called
"Birth Control Moms." They’re moms who use birth control, but apparently not
correctly.–Conan O'Brien

During a concert at the White House yesterday, President Obama got on stage and performed
with Mick Jagger. Apparently, Obama wanted to prove to Republicans that he could work with a
rich old white guy.–Conan O'Brien

Today Newt Gingrich said we should use covert operations to assassinate Iran's nuclear
scientists. Gingrich also said the key to covert operations is announcing them on the
campaign trail.–Conan O'Brien

All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are
the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made,
out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our
understanding of them.

Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially
when it is deep.

If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, “good fences
make good neighbors.”

If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every
man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an
essential part of the democratic process.

In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused
popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's
representatives.

It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the
appearance of weakness and vacillation.

It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty
have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.

It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the
equal treatment of unequals.

Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.

Morals are three-quarters manners.

No court can make time stand still.

The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of
procedural safeguards.

The indispensible judicial requisite is intellectual humility.

The mode by which the inevitable is reached is effort.

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely
because it comes late.

-----

(Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States
Supreme Court. Frankfurter was born in Vienna, and immigrated to New
York at the age of 12. He graduated from Harvard Law School and was
active politically, helping to found the American Civil Liberties Union.
He was a friend and adviser of President Franklin Roosevelt who
appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1939. Frankfurter served on the
Supreme Court for 23 years, and was a noted advocate of judicial
restraint in the judgements of the Court.-Wikipedia)

After reviewing my new court-ordered real estate valuation and those of my neighbors,
I have come to the conclusion that the primary tool used by Allegheny County assessment
authorities is a dartboard.

America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with
all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody
else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start
closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then
drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas.

Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of
death.

Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime
in Progress is not a happy prospect.

I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but
they've always worked for me.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five
hours.

I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your
back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that
might have to be killed.

I was also drunk, crazy and heavily armed at all times. People trembled
and cursed when I came into a public room and started screaming in
German.

If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're
going to be locked up.

In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile.

Last year's fun is today's crime. Even tying your shoes in an airport
can get you locked up.

Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.

No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More
Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted.
Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun- for anybody. 67. You are getting
Greedy. Act your old age. Relax- This won't hurt. (suicide note)

Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the
highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

Some may never live, but the crazy never die.

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as
some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the
journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run
free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.

The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is
the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the
operative ethic.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those
who see it coming and jump aside.

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes
for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make
no mistake about it: We are At War now- with somebody- and we will stay
At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives. (9/12/2001)

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right
feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has
been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might
be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a
crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your
eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation.

On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no
position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.
There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus
Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.

But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf
should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing
throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.
They are trying to force government leaders into following their
position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a
particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of
money or votes or both.

I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this
country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I
must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are?
And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral
beliefs to me?

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of
every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to
control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them
today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate
their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

It should be noted former judge Andrew Napolitano wasn't fired because
of this commentary, as some online sources claim. Fox Business had
previously canceled his program and several others as part of a planned
change in the network's emphasis. The video is consistent with
Napolitano's views as a libertarian and Ron Paul supporter, and he
remains a Fox News legal and political analyst.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall
deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so
whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a
purpose-and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right
to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one
that suits them better.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my
idea of democracy.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find
the way.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever
you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—
in fees, expenses, and waste of time.

Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill
temper.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be
changed.

I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is
at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue
than to find one who cannot.

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an
assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of
falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify
or excuse him.

I do not like that man. I must get to know him better.

I must stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is
right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt
new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few
virtues.

Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this
race and that race and the other race being inferior and therefore they
must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things,
and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more
stand up declaring that all men are created equal.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of
purpose between the Almighty and them.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the
occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not
whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than
of good.

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece
the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves,
we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the
quarrel.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their
revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and,
under a just God, can not long retain it.

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not
all mean the same thing.

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect
some new disaster with each newspaper we read.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my
religion.

When you have an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away,
it's best to let him run.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to
see it tried on him personally.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.
Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who
enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.

Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they
think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Hell, there are no rules here- we're trying to accomplish something.

I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.

I only use my body to carry my brain around.(on exercise)

If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally
astonish ourselves.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean
it's useless.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they
were to success when they gave up.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work.

Restlessness is discontent- and discontent is the first necessity of
progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man- and I will show you a
failure.

Waste is worse than loss.

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for
fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -
sun, wind and tide. I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a
source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out
before we tackle that.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
superficial appearance of being right.

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in
principle is always a vice.

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even
his enemy from oppression.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole
contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to
death.

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they
are, without regard to place or person; my country is the
world, and my religion is to do good.

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be
mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in
believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to
believe what one does not believe.

It is the duty of a patriot to protect his country from
its government.

My own mind is my own Church.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government,
even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its
worst state an intolerable one.

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined
less than any book that ever existed.

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid
cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted
the human race, have had their origin in this thing called
revelation, or revealed religion. It has been the most
dishonorable belief against the character of the divinity,
the most destructive to morality, and the peace and
happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man began
to exist.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly
related that it is difficult to class them separately. One
step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step
above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the
most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of
mankind.

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and
to do good is my religion.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis,
shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands
it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must,
like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the
chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional
belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared
himself for the commission of every other crime.

When the people fear the government, you have tyranny.
When the government fears the people, you have freedom.

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember
that virtue is not hereditary.

Just returned from taking Misty to the emergency vet. She suddenly developed
major problems in her right eye, the one being treated for secondary glaucoma.
She'll probably have surgery later this morning. We're hoping she'll be home
tomorrow night or Saturday at the latest.

No sense in trying to go to sleep at this point. I have a major project
promised for tomorrow, and working helps to attenuate the worrying. A bit, anyway.

For years I have let dentists ride roughshod over my teeth; I have been
sawed, hacked, chopped, whittled, bewitched, bewildered, tattooed, and
signed on again; but this is cuspid's last stand.

I guess I'm just an old mad scientist at bottom. Give me an underground
laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a
diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care not
who writes the nation's laws.

I loathe writing. On the other hand I'm a great believer in money.

Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin- it's the triumphant
twang of a bedspring.

Philadelphia, a metropolis sometimes known as the City of Brotherly
Love, but more accurately as the City of Bleak November Afternoons.

The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to
starve anywhere.

The main obligation is to amuse yourself.

Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century.

The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it
out like a dishtowel. You are what you are.

To err is human; to forgive, supine.

I don't wish to be everything to everyone, but I would like to be
something to someone.